risks of not telling apts about cat? (apartment, tenant, evicted)
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Bottom line...is your cat worth the $400.00 ? If you love your cat the answer is yes. If you dont have the money work out a payment plan with the ll (100.00 mo for 4 months). Cats love to look out windows. This is one of many reasons why ill never live in a apt again. I have 5 adult cats. They go where i go....period.
A apt is a big house with your own private quarters. If i was to live in a apt with a deposit of 400.00 per cat it would cost me 2k. Years back i moved into a studio apt & the pet deposit was 150.00 per pet. I never told the mgr i had 4 cats. I had no problems for the 6 yrs i lived in the apt. My cats are strickly indoors. Four of them are seniors now (2 are over 13).
I think it depends. If you're in a big apartment complex and they do allow pets, how are they going to know just by seeing the cat in the window that you, specifically, have not paid your pet deposit? You're just a number to them. My experience with apartment complexes is that they don't really care very much as long as you take good care of the unit and your pet isn't disturbing other tenants. Of course they want as much money as they can get from you, but they don't care enough to check every unit for un-deposited pets. Again, my experience. YMMV.
For example. I'm not a fan of lying, but when I was checking out an apartment a few years ago, I asked the manager about their pet policy. He said, "well, we don't allow pets, but people sneak cats in all the time, it's fine." Really, I swear to God. So I moved in there and brought my cats. There were never any negative consequences.
That said, I would never bring in an "illegal" cat into a situation where I was renting from a small potatoes landlord or renting a house from a private owner. Not only do these folks operate on much thinner margins, you have a strong interest in keeping a good relationship with them. And they're much more likely to find out about the cat.
And overall, it's better to be honest about it and not have that worry - I really like the suggestion someone else made about spreading the deposit over a few months, if they'll let you.
I think it depends. If you're in a big apartment complex and they do allow pets, how are they going to know just by seeing the cat in the window that you, specifically, have not paid your pet deposit? You're just a number to them. My experience with apartment complexes is that they don't really care very much as long as you take good care of the unit and your pet isn't disturbing other tenants. Of course they want as much money as they can get from you, but they don't care enough to check every unit for un-deposited pets. Again, my experience. YMMV.
I live in large complexes exclusively. I once had a huge mess of trouble because a maintenance guy reported my second cat to management. I had paid for both of them way back at the first lease (it had been renewed many times since then). The property had changed hands several times during this period and my original paperwork was lost. They were talking to me like I was a criminal and threatening me with eviction over a cat I had already paid for! I finally found my original paperwork and proved that I had paid for both and they left me alone. Since then, whenever I renew I insist that it is listed on the new lease that I have 2 cats and have paid the fees/deposits for both.
The people I mentioned who were busted with their cats all lived in large complexes as well. Apparently the maintenance staff busted most of them - they were required to document all animals they saw in a unit whenever they entered for any reason. One was busted by an office staff person driving around on a golfcart noting which windows had cats in them - yes, seriously.
I once had a neighbor from hell. She was extremely loud, had several guys living there who were not on the lease, and all the neighbors in the building complained about her. When I went in to give my notice I mentioned her as one of the reasons I was leaving. I detailed how obnoxious she was and how she had this little chihuahua that was completely untrained and never on a leash - when it needed to go out she'd just open the door and let it run out and bark at everyone, try to start fights with big dogs, chase the ducks, etc. I like dogs but I honestly wished a gator would get it so I could have some peace. The look on the office guy's face was like rapture when he realized who I was talking about and he exclaims to me that she never paid for a dog! They evicted her over this dog she had never paid for the next week, while they had let her slide over her other violations. In my experience, all apartment complexes take the issue of pet deposits very seriously.
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